


I see stars

by Utuinen



Category: Star Stable Online, Starshine Legacy (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Late Night Conversations, Sleepovers, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22914208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Utuinen/pseuds/Utuinen
Summary: The moon shines pale above them as they ride through the empty fields outside the Jorvik Stables, the night around them quiet and comforting.The girls are staying the night at the stables, but they don't feel like going to bed just yet. Instead they decide to go for a nightly ride together.
Relationships: Lisa Peterson & Linda Chanda & Anne von Blyssen & Alex Cloudmill
Kudos: 13





	I see stars

**Author's Note:**

> Set in-between the games.
> 
> I try not to go against sso lore as much as I can, but you can pry the aliens from my cold dead fingers.

There’s something special about being at the stables late at night. The odd quiet of a place where there is always some life and movement, the horses shifting in their stalls, the soft, distant yet distinct sound of the sea outside the stable’s walls. Most lights have been turned off, the yellow of old electric bulbs still visible through the windows of the dwelling house across the yard where Herman lives.

The bobbing of the flashlight that could be seen in the dark meant that Linda and Alex were coming back, hopefully with enough blankets for all four of them. 

”Success!” Alex proudly informs when they’re close enough that her yelling probably couldn’t be heard all the way at the Sunfields’. Lisa smiles and holds the stable’s door for them, closing it after Linda ducks in carefully, clearly not seeing properly in front of her from behind her haul. It was early summer, sure, but not quite so warm during the nights that they would want to keep the doors open more than necessary.

”Great, the blankets and... more pillows? Didn’t we have enough?” Lisa asks as she takes a better look at what Alex and Linda are carrying.

”Herman insisted,” Linda shrugs and places them on one of the two still empty beds—though they had stayed behind to do the last bits of the day’s work, sweeping away the stray stalks of hay and re-arranging the equipment correctly after the new stablehand as they had promised while Alex and Linda had ventured out, they had also used the opportunity to first claim the beds they wanted—in the room that used to be the stable’s old saddle room but had been recently renovated into a bedroom, mostly meant for the older, more responsible teens to stay in during the summer camps the Jorvik Stables offered. Sleeping there you were closer to the horses, Herman had reasoned, so it was exactly the kind of thing the people of Jorvik were going to love. The four of them had volunteered to try it out first, to see how well it worked and if the arrangement needed some minor changes.

” _Good_ ,” Anne says, wrinkling her nose, lying on her own bed, already dressed in her nicely coordinated pajamas. ”The ones we have are so thin, I’m going to need at least two.”

”Here you go,” Alex says and dumps the blanket and extra pillows unceremoniously on top of her.

”It’s not my fault I get migraines if I sleep badly,” Anne huffs, moving them aside. Alex hums noncommittally, but it’s clear that it isn’t going to turn into a bigger argument than that. Not even Alex is going to point out it isn’t _migraines_ she suffers from. They all have had some trouble sleeping, nightmares all too common for all of them. You don’t get used to waking up in a cold sweat, not quite sure where you are or if the people you care about are safe.

That is why it isn’t such a big surprise that when they a little later lie down and try to sleep, the dreams seem to evade them on purpose.

”Are you guys tired yet? Because I’m not,” Alex says eventually, very casually, yet fools no one.

”Me neither, really,” Lisa answers and sits up in the dark room, shuffling her sheets. In the low light coming from the only window in the room, she sees Alex sitting up in her bed, leaning against the wall next to it.

”Hmm,” Anne’s voice joins in. ”What if we just make this a proper sleepover, now that we have the chance?”

It gets quiet for a moment, as if they were waiting for Linda to speak up as well. After a short while, there’s a sigh. ”I _was_ a little tired.” She turns on the lantern by her bedside table and puts her glasses back on. She’s smiling. The four of them look at each other in the warm light of the lantern, modeled after an old gas lamp but with a led light inside, an immensely safer option in a place where dry hay gets literally everywhere. Together they ignore the dark circles under each other’s eyes.

”What should we do?” Linda asks. It’s been a while since she last took part in a sleepover, and the one thing she remembers clearly is them trying to summon demons with her old elementary school friends after she had read something similar a few weeks earlier. It felt silly then. It does not feel silly now. With the four of them, it is entirely too probable they would somehow _actually_ succeed.

”We don’t have any games here, do we? We should tell Herman to get some,” Alex says. She usually carries a pack of playing cards with her, just in case, but had of course forgotten them today.

”We can’t really do any facemasks or anything like that, either...” Anne ponders.

Lisa rests her head against a bent knee and smiles at them. ”We’re at the stables. Not like even we do this all the time—we should go for a nightly ride!”

”Ooh, Meteor isn’t going to like being woken up,” Linda says but jumps up from her bed, excited all the same. All the girls start looking for their shoes, Alex wondering if she should change her boxer shorts for a pair of sweatpants before they leave.

”Change them. It’s cold outside,” Anne says, clearly gleeful about already having long trouser legs.

After grabbing whatever long-sleeved jackets or hoodies each of them had they made their way to the stables proper, trying to make as little noise as they could as they called out to their horses, not wishing to disturb the others.

<< _What?_ >> Tin-Can’s sleepy voice asks Alex. Alex gently scratches his nose while slipping into the stall.

”We’re going for a ride,” Alex says. Tin-Can gets visibly intrigued.

<< _An adventure, is it?_ >>

”Yeah. Hopefully nothing too exciting this time,” Alex laughs. With him and the others nearby, it feels like what it is. A joke. And that is a good feeling, one Alex hasn’t felt too often lately. They saddle the horses and lead outside, shivering little in the cool summer night. It’s not really cold, not enough to make them feel they would need more clothes on, but it’s enough to make it hard to believe how warm the days are already.

Linda closes the stable doors and gets up on Meteor’s back the last—Meteor had spent a good while bargaining for extra apples after they returned—looking at the other three girls and their horses expectantly. ”Where to?”

”Anywhere,” Lisa smiles at her before spurring Starshine onwards.

The light in Herman’s window is out now, which is good. If he saw the four of them leaving who knows where in the middle of the night, he would just get needlessly worried. For a good reason of course, with the track record the four of them have.

The moon shines pale above them as they ride through the empty fields outside the Jorvik Stables, the night around them quiet and comforting. All of them can probably feel it, how the world is now at peace, none of the people sleeping in their own homes even knowing how close they came to its end only a while ago. Night dew covers the wheat, dampening their pants as it sweeps past their legs. They bypass Jarlaheim, going through the harbour, passing the Silversong String Quartet’s adverts outside the cafe as they go. Anne had talked about them before, offering to treat them all to their next concert in Jorvik. The tracks they make are _heavenly_ for dressage, she had said.

They are mostly silent, almost afraid of their words breaking the spell of this peaceful night.

”How far are we going?” Anne asks eventually when they leave the Goldspur fields behind and enter Greendale.

”We can turn back,” Lisa says, looking over. ”But I thought since we’re not in a hurry, we could still go on. Maybe a little race?” She raises her eyebrows and smirks.

”You bet! We’re not making it easy for you, though!” Alex smirks back as Tin-Can changes from a lazy trot into a gallop as if reading her thoughts. He probably is.

Linda laughs as her three friends all take off, patting Meteor’s neck. She knows the two of them have no chance in this race.

<< _I’m older than they are. Let the young ones run_ ,>> is Meteor’s excuse.

Well, they all knew from the start how it would go. It isn’t about Tin-Can not being fast, Concorde is simply faster. Likewise, Concorde might have wings in his real form, but it doesn’t matter against Starshine. Starshine gallops through the woods with such speed that hardly anyone could keep up, his blue mane and tail flowing behind him as he goes. Lisa momentarily closes her eyes, feeling the wind on her face.

<< _I’m sorry, Princess_ ,>> Concorde says.

”Don’t be. You’re still the best horse there is,” Anne says when she has enough breath for it, finally slowing down when they reach the edge of the trees, arriving on a small cliff. 

Lisa has already stopped, leaning on Starshine’s bristling neck and waiting for them. ”Do you want to rest?”

Alex joins them soon, then Linda, and they get off their horses petting them affectionately and then letting them graze freely as long as they don’t go too far. The girls sit down on a nearby log, avoiding the damp grass already soaking through their sneakers.

”Guys, look! A shooting star!” Alex points to the sky and all four of them gaze up. It is a beautiful night. The sky is far from being the black velvet of mid-winter, its blue a lot lighter hue, but this far from the cities the stars are perfectly visible still, spotting the whole firmament and shining down their light alongside the moon. The milky way crosses above them.

”Makes you feel small, doesn’t it?” Linda says, the skies reflecting from her glasses.

”Sure does,” Lisa nods, the same wistful expression on her face.

Anne bits her lip, allowing her eyes to wander. ”It’s weird to think that Pandoria is _out there_ somewhere, and we have truly been there.” She usually chooses not to talk about Pandoria when she can, so it’s a bit surprising topic coming from her.

”It’s weird to think that aliens actually exist. I mean, if you think about it it’s only logical that there would be life outside Earth, but... _Really_. That they’re not something far off and distant, but we have actually seen them, talked to them,” Linda says.

”Oh yes. Somehow watching alien invasion movies hasn’t been quite as relaxing after I’ve been on the side they try to kill,” Alex huffs a laugh. It comes out more forced than she meant to.

”I wonder what the Guardian’s planet is like. I mean, I know Garnok and his generals are here now, but do you think that means they’re safe?” Lisa asks.

”I sure hope so. Someone better be,” Anne scrunches up her nose, the way she does. ”Otherwise, what’s the point?”

”I think they are. Just a hunch,” Linda says, smiling. ”I mean... Look up. It’s so beautiful. So peaceful.”

They stay like that, watching the stars long enough for the horizon to turn paler and paler, almost breaking into a dawn before they get back up on their horses and ride back to the stables. It’s still too early for anyone to be up, so they manage to take care of the horses without having to explain where they had disappeared to, and finally they huddle back under their blankets in the used-to-be-saddle-room.

”I’m going to be so sore tomorrow,” Alex grumbles quietly.

"You were the one who wanted to stay up," Lisa whispers back.

"A few years ago this would have been nothing! Old age sure doesn't come alone."

For once it doesn’t take long for all four of them to fall asleep now, small but content smiles on their faces. Tomorrow is a lot closer than is probably ideal for waking up well-rested, but it doesn’t matter. It’s still tonight, and in their minds all of them are still riding together under that sky full of stars.


End file.
